ZnO nanorod arrays with perfect order and uniformity were prepared using a simple, low-cost, commonly available and scalable nanosphere lithography for patterning gold catalyst particles and a successive bottom-up growth technique in a tube furnace chemical vapor deposition system. Each rod in the arrays had perfect surface facets, sharp edges and uniform size. For all of the rods, their sides were oriented the same. This bottom-up assembly method may accelerate the use of ZnO nanorods in real device applications.

We show the success of large-scale growth of ZnO hexagonal nanoprisms on silicon substrates by a two-staged mechanism. In the first stage, the catalyst nanoparticles assisted the nucleation via the vapour-liquid-solid (VLS) mechanism to form polyhedral nanoparticles. In the second stage, the nanoprism was grown up by anisotropic homoepitaxy, layer by layer, on the c-face of the polyhedral nanoparticle. The surface of the nanoprism consists of the ultraflat {0001} and {10 10} planes. The nanoprism is 200-500 nm in width and controllably sized in length, of high crystalline quality and excellent optical quality. This nanoprism would be an interesting building block for highly efficient nanolasers.